WASHINGTON – The Senate voted Monday evening to confirm Steven Mnuchin, a former investor, banker and Trump campaign official, to be the 77th secretary of the treasury. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans, and the nominee was confirmed 53-47.

Confirmation means that Mnuchin will be in a position to help carry out Trump’s ambitious agenda for cutting tax rates, lessening financial regulation and revamping trade agreements.

The treasury secretary is the top economic post in an administration, and Mnuchin’s swearing-in will go a long way toward filling out Trump’s understaffed Cabinet and, potentially, facilitating the president’s legislative agenda. (read more)

One of the larger hurdles President Trump faces is a need to re-educate an entire generation on a fundamentally new vision of the U.S. economy. A return to a Pro-Main Street, goods-based, manufacturing, technology, innovation and industry driven economic model.

Interestingly, many people have referenced a 1991 (25 years old) video of Donald Trump testifying before congress – as evidence of him being tuned in to political consequences of economic activity. The entire video is well worth watching because it gives you insight into a very specific moment in time as they discuss the ‘Reagan era’ 1986 tax reform act.

For the sake of this discussion post I would like to draw your attention to a very specific exchange between Donald Trump and Representative Helen Delich Bently (R-MD).

Representative Bently takes the discussion a little off subject from real-estate and engages Mr. Trump on U.S. manufacturing. Remember this is 1991. (The video is prompted to @39:24) Watch – it’s only about two minutes:

[Related Note – During Donald Trump’s testimony before congress in this video, Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Ted Cruz were approximately 20-years-old. This understanding sets the backdrop for a generation who is disconnected from the previous economic model being discussed within the congressional committee itself.]

In this 1991 hearing, Representative Helen Bently is pointing out an ongoing erosion of U.S. manufacturing. Notice how she references current trade deals and “fair trade” versus “free trade”, sound familiar? It should.

What you will find in all of Donald Trump’s positions, is a paradigm shift he necessarily understands must take place in order to accomplish the long-term goals for the U.S. citizen/worker as it relates to “entitlements” or “structural benefits”.

All other politicians begin their policy proposals with a fundamentally divergent perception of the U.S. economy. They are working with, and retaining the outlook of, a U.S. economy based on “services”; a service-based economic model. Consequently their forecasted economic growth projections are based on ever-increasing foreign manufacturing dependency, and even more solidifying service-based economics.

While this economic path has been created by decades old U.S. policy, and is ultimately the only historical economic path now taught in school, Trump intends to change the course entirely.

Because so many shifts -policy nudges- have taken place in the past several decades, few academics and even fewer MSM observers, are able to understand how to get off this path and chart a better course.

President Trump is proposing less dependence on foreign companies for cheap goods, (the cornerstone of a service economy) and a return to a more balanced U.S. larger economic model where the manufacturing and production base can be re-established and competitive based on American entrepreneurship and innovation.

No other economy in the world innovates like the U.S.A, Trump sees this as a key advantage across all industry – including manufacturing.

The benefit of cheap overseas labor, which is considered a global market disadvantage for the U.S., is offset by utilizing innovation and energy independence.

The third highest variable cost of goods beyond raw materials first, labor second, is energy. If the U.S. energy sector is unleashed -and fully developed- the manufacturing price of any given product will allow for global trade competition even with higher U.S. wage prices.

In addition the U.S. has a key strategic advantage with raw manufacturing materials such as: iron ore, coal, steel, precious metals and vast mineral assets which are needed in most new modern era manufacturing. Trump proposes we stop selling these valuable national assets to countries we compete against – they belong to the American people, they should be used for the benefit of American citizens. Period.

EXAMPLE: Currently China buys and recycles our heavy (steel) and light (aluminum) metal products (for pennies on the original manufacturing dollar) and then uses those metals to reproduce manufactured goods for sale back to the U.S. – Donald Trump is proposing we do the manufacturing ourselves with the utilization of our own resources; and we use the leverage from any sales of these raw materials in our international trade agreements.

When you combine FULL resource development (in a modern era) with with the removal of over-burdensome regulatory and compliance systems, necessarily filled with enormous bureaucratic costs, Donald Trump feels we can lower the cost of production and be globally competitive.

In essence, Trump changes the economic paradigm, and we no longer become a dependent nation relying on a service driven economy.

In addition, an unquantifiable benefit comes from investment, where the smart money play -to get increased return on investment- becomes putting capital INTO the U.S. economy, instead of purchasing foreign stocks.

With all of the above opportunities in mind, this is how we get on the pathway to rebuilding our national infrastructure. The demand for labor increases, and as a consequence so too does the U.S. wage rate which has been stagnant (or non-existent) for the past three decades.

As the wage rate increases, and as the economy expands, the governmental dependency model is reshaped and simultaneously receipts to the U.S. treasury improve. More money into the U.S Treasury and less dependence on welfare programs have a combined exponential impact. You gain a dollar, and have no need to spend a dollar. That is how the SSI and safety net programs are saved under President Trump.

When you elevate your economic thinking you begin to see that all of the “entitlements” or expenditures become more affordable with an economy that is fully functional.

As the GDP of the U.S. expands, so too does our ability to meet the growing need of the retiring U.S. worker. We stop thinking about how to best divide a limited economic pie, and begin thinking about how many more economic pies we can create.

The idiocy of the constant delays. By the Democrats opposing every pick, they assured all would be approved. The smarter play would have been to pick out one or two and make them toxic while letting the others sail through.

Keep going with the “hair on fire” strategy, losers. Your failures are legion.

It was a safe vote by him. When it comes time to vote, they’ve been already tallied beforehand by the Majority and Minority Leaders. Either way Manchin voted the confirmation was assured. Now, if his vote had been a swing vote, this would have been an entirely different matter.

This is absolute bull! Obama had 18 Cabinet members confirmed by the end of his first week! Trump now has 11 confirmed. Why is McConnell putting Mulvaney and Pruitt up before Carson, Ross, Zinke, and Perry? He knows that the Dems will require 30 hours of debate for both Mulvaney and Pruitt, thus limiting who will get confirmed this week.

I’ve read over and over about Dodd-Frank but nothing about Glass-Steagall. I hope Secretary Mnuchin makes one of the financial reforms Donald Trump put on the Republican platform one of his priorities.

I often feel like I am communicating directly with someone like Bannon or Miller on here. I feel like I’ve accidentally found the secret portal on the Internet where I’m talking to the braintrust itself. It’s probably delusion, but it’s nice to finally find a site where everyone seems to “get it”, and then watch as, magically, the President does everything we want him to do (and then some).

Pretty cool feeling eh? Even if we’re only observing the looking glass, its a great feeling.

My father had me read Toffler’s The Third Wave when I was in high school in the early 80’s. He always told me the dangers of losing manufacturing as a nation…and he was an engineer, just like I was trained. Manufacturing has a huge multiplier effect on the supply chain and ultimately to consumers.

If the Dems demand 30 hours of debate for both Mulvaney and Pruitt, the rest of those who advanced will not get confirmed until after the Senate comes back from taking a week off!!! So we are talking Monday, February 27, would be the earliest that things will start to pick up again.

I hope so, but I don’t have the confidence that is how it will end up. I hope that McConnell pulls something that forces all of them through BEFORE they take off for a week, but don’t hold your breath.

We can guarantee a certain percentage of what Sundance outlined by a simple rule. We are at the point we have critical needs that we cannot manufacture ourselves…I have heard it stated as imagining if Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and Japan was our source for our airplanes….

We have similiar issues today with South Korea making key components of our electrical grid that take months if not years to manufacture and send here…Mining rare earth minerals used in modern electronics and weapon systems is only possible by subsidizing do to China ,which we don’t do….This is national security.

We have to be able to manufacture a percentage of our critical needs and set this outside of any international market. It would automatically bring certain industries back to life in this country.

Marx was all for free trade and I believe for some of the reasons I stated…It was a way communism could bring one world government due to dependency on each other and thus allowing an entity,in his case communism, to take over….We call it Globalism….

Indeed, pretty much we are already dependent on China for many essential manufactured goods. And not JUST home consumer items. Hand tools, portable electric generators up to ten kW or so, machine tools costing under $10,000, many automotive repair parts, medium and lower price optics, ALL that sort of thing is mostly produced in China.

That 3.5kW portable generator you keep for emergencies? It could be one of a dozen brands but it was made by Wuxi Kapor. The mini-lathe in your dad’s garage? Could be labeled Central Machinery (Harbor Freight sells them), or some other name but it was made by Seig. Just the paint jobs and details of features and included accessories vary.

It’s not just these low-end machines that are China-only : The next two tiers above them are also made there. Essentially NONE of this stuff is made in the USA now. So we had better hope that we never need to make it here — or that over the next few years we wise up and start doing some of our own small machine and tool manufacturing.

Nor is the vulnerability only to China deciding not to sell some or all of that stuff to us: In cases I know about, all the different labels under which we buy these goods are actually made in one or two factories in China. A disaster, perhaps a fire, could mean our one factory is gone: Do they have another that could supply our needs? Who knows?

I totally agree. That is what originally drew me to Trump — you can tell by how his kids turned out and their open heartfelt accolades of him that he did a lot right as a dad. That told me more than anything that, though maybe not perfect (and who is), he was the one I’d be voting for. So I jumped on the Trump train, and he’s not disappointed me yet! Go Donald … MAGA!!